


Similarities

by ophellos



Category: Uncharted (Video Games)
Genre: Bisexuality, Coming Out, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-22
Updated: 2016-10-22
Packaged: 2018-08-24 01:31:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8351038
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ophellos/pseuds/ophellos
Summary: Cleaning out Elena's basement leads to the discovery of some photo albums.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Elate Week (elateweek.tumblr.com) for the prompt discovery. Set between the third and fourth game.
> 
> This is kind of silly.

Nate swipes at his nose for the seventeenth time in the last five minutes, coughing as an antagonistic cloud of dust erupts in his face. Elena giggles because as adoringly pathetic as it is, Nathan Drake being allergic to dust was not something she would have guessed, especially since he’s spent a large portion of his life crawling around archeological ruins. And she doesn’t feel especially bad about it since he didn’t offer up that tidbit when volunteering to help her clean out her basement.

It was quickly becoming an all-day project, between Nate’s curious nature and Elena’s neglect of the space for the last few years. The mess wasn’t organized with any rhyme or reason, boxes piled high full of old college schoolwork or winter sweaters that no longer fit. Tucked into a corner Elena finds her old bike, wheels soft and deflated, long abandoned after she bought her first car.

Elena never claimed to be a neat person, but the amount of junk that had followed her from one home to the next over the years was frankly embarrassing. Not that Nate seemed to mind; he was sorting through the chaos with enthusiasm nearing what Elena had seen only before during his jobs, asking a million questions and stopping to examine everything he finds.

He squints at the label scribbled across the top of the small cardboard box in his arms. “Photo albums, 1981 to 2005.” He turns to her, a deadly serious expression on his face. “Elena, are there baby pictures in here?”

She knows anything she could say would just encourage him and ignores the question, continuing to stuff old paperwork into a large garbage bag. Unfortunately, he takes her silence as confirmation and she hears the sound of old duct tape being peeled back. She darts over to run interference, snatching the box from his arms.

“Hey!”

She balances it on the heel of her hand, pushing her other hand against Nate’s chest to keep it away from him. He makes a half-hearted grab for it and she tsks at him. “If you wanna get this place cleaned up so that we can move _into our new house_ you’ll wait until later to go through the goodies.”

He pouts, pulling out the puppy eyes, but she steels herself and carefully steps past him to carry the box up the stairs. She pauses at the top of the steps, glancing back down at him and suppresses a smile when she sees him working twice as hard than he had been before, a determined look on him face.

 

* * *

 

Six hours, many sniffles, and a shower later, Elena is pouring large glasses of wine for the two of them. She hands one to Nate, and raises hers to clink with his. “To clearing out my basement,” she says.

“To never being able to smell again,” Nate answers, his voice sounding a bit nasally from his clogged sinuses.

They take a sip and then Nate is eyeing Elena expectantly. Finally she nods and starts heading out to the living room, where the long awaited box sits on the coffee table. The living room is littered with other boxes halfway packed with Elena’s DVDs and game consoles and books. Nate sets his wine glass down on a coaster and rips open the tape. Elena settles in next to him as he pulls out the first album. He flips it open and gasps at the first photo: a pudgy blonde preschooler in an enormously fluffy dress. “Look at your chubby cheeks,” he says, grinning up at her.

“I grew into them eventually,” she answers, smiling as she watches him. Nate looks at each photo for a long time, examining each photo for each detail. He makes his way through the album slowly, asking questions occasionally. 

Elena recognizes the next album he pulls out and feels a small tug in her chest as he cracks it open. Sure enough, there they are: the northern lights in the sky over Greenland. Nate looks at them, humming in appreciation as he flips through the pages of mountains and hot springs. There’s a lot of scenery in this album, a lot of her older work that she’s attached to. A lot of empty sleeves too.

Towards the back of the album there’s a loose photo of two women, bundled up and standing arm and arm in front of a glacier. Elena doesn’t say anything as Nate picks it up, turning it over in his hands to read the back. “Elena and Chantel, 2005,” he says aloud, before looking closely at the two women. In the photo, Elena’s nose and cheeks are bright red from the cold, and she is pressed against the other woman’s side, both grinning with their brown eyes alight with excitement.

“Who’s Chantel?” Nate asks.

Elena pauses, taking the photo and looking down at it. “She was part of the camera crew on that reality show I was on.” Elena says, swirling the wine around in her glass. “We dated for a couple of years after.”

She peeks at Nate and he’s looking down at her. “Oh! So you’re…”

“Bi,” she finishes. “I haven’t really mentioned it before because some of my ex-boyfriends have either been freaked out or just downright creepy.”

He’s quiet for a moment, and she watches him anxiously as he rubs the back of his neck. “Me too,” he says finally, smiling shyly at her and she stares back at him.

“What?” She says, breaking into a smile. “Really?”

He shrugs. “Yeah, I mean I’ve never exactly had a stable love life but I’ve dated a few guys here and there. My first kiss was with a boy.”

“How have we never talked about this? We’ve been married for almost four years!”

Nate grins back at her. “Well, like you said, sometimes people react badly.”

Elena puts her glass down on the coffee table and takes Nate’s hands. “I love you,” she says gently, and Nate leans down to place a soft kiss on her lips.

“I love you too,” he says. After a moment, he turns back to the cardboard box and pulls the next one out. Elena is reaching for her wine glass when she hears him exclaim, “Ah! I found the middle school pictures!”

She quickly abandons her drink to snatch it away.

**Author's Note:**

> Since we know absolutely nothing about Elena's family, I assume they're just not in the picture so that's why Elena has all the albums that parents usually have.


End file.
